Afghan trip update 1

[Jim Rentfrow]

Hello everyone,

The trip has been very fun so far and very aggravating at other times. All of our equipment is still stuck in customs because of the corruption in the government here. I have seen some marvelous gems when in Kabul though; including, a 52 carat piece of rough emerald yesterday, which I put some pictures below of. It was awesome to see and hold in your hand. The pictures do not do it justice. Since we have been here for a while now and already put some cash down we are now starting to see the good stuff. I could upload a ton of pictures on here but with upload and download speeds of 2k bytes a second I would be here all week. If anyone wants to see pictures from the trip please let me know and I can add a Facebook link to my album on here. I also added a picture of a large ruby mineral specimen I saw as well.

 

[Kismet]

Lovely color on the emerald rough! But wow, bummer that you can't get your equipment through.

 

[autumngems]

Want an emerald so bad

 

[Treenbean]

Bummer about the equipment. But WOW, that is an awesome emerald. I hope you find lots of gooodies. Be safe. And yes please do, upload pics to facebook or here, I would love to see more.

 

[Jim Rentfrow]

The link to the album is below. I will be adding things every week. The history and craftsmanship here is amazing.

There are reports of a kilo sized chunk of ruby that came out of the region but it is in Dubai right now trying to get sold. If it comes back to Kabul I will get to see it and hopefully take a picture or two.


**edited by moderator. I apologize but at this time we do not allow links to personal facebook albums or outside image hosting**

 

[JewelFreak]

Jim, terrific pictures! The workmanship in the carving & plasterwork is beautiful. The emerald is dazzling! Hope you get your stuff back soon from customs.

 

[Kismet]

Love all the additional pictures! I love the carvings and inlays... very beautiful.